WELL, LET'S SEE NOW. First, the St. Louis Police Department forgets to count 5,760 crimes, issues squirrelly crime statistics and leaves the mayor and the chief with egg on their faces.
Then certain St. Louis School Board members read the Post-Dispatch and are shocked to discover that fat raises have been given to various school bureaucrats.
And now, as the concrete towers rise for the new $387 million Cardinals stadium, we learn that the Fire Department is balking because the stadium is a mere 40 feet from Highway 40. Apparently, there's not enough room for emergency vehicles. It's nice that someone finally noticed.
As journalists, we have great sympathy for people who have trouble with numbers. Far be it from us to criticize others who are numerically challenged, who tend to drift off when reading weighty financial documents and who have the planning acumen of Wile E. Coyote.
Still, the recent municipal follies might leave questions in the minds of voters, such as: "Can't anybody in this town count?"
We're especially sympathetic to the Fire Department. Apparently, Chief Sherman George began complaining about the stadium's proximity to the highway last year when construction was just a gleam in the owners' eyes. His concerns are legitimate, although we're not sure why nobody listened to them a lot sooner.
The busy elevated highway is so close to the stadium that a serious problem at one could become a problem for both. A fire on the highway, for instance, could be dangerous for baseball fans beneath. In current designs, there isn't enough room for emergency vehicles to maneuver between the highway and the stadium, and fire trucks can't reach the stadium interior. A terrorist attack at a crowded stadium, with the Cardinals drawing nearly 40,000 fans to each game, and no way to get help in or get people out in a hurry are serious safety issues.
What's amazing here is that these concerns weren't resolved in the planning stages, well before the concrete started flowing. Then again, an efficient operation would be far less fun to watch.
